Transcript: Mayor Adams Hosts Older Adult Town Hall

March 21, 2024

Video available at: https://youtu.be/YtjsYS-DzUM

 

Commissioner Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez, Department for the Aging: So, sir... I was going to say mayor. I don't think I have to introduce you. I think they're quite warmed up for you and excited to have you here. I reminded them that you have these town halls throughout the city and that you saw that older adults were not participating in the evenings and you wanted us to have special town halls for older adults.

So, thank the mayor for that, because he's giving you an opportunity… 

So, as I said before. we have a bunch of city officials from the mayor's team here to give you a very brief introduction of some of the work that they're doing in the community and in this community that's important to you. So, I'm just going to mention them by name and then I'll call them up.

First of all, we have Commanding Officer Tompkins from the 40 Precinct, thank you for being here. We have my long‑time buddy and Bronx colleague Annabel Palma. She's from the Human Rights Commission. We also have Anthony Perez, who is our borough president from Department of Transportation, we have Christopher Wagner from PEU. Hi, Christopher. Great to see you again. I don't see Jessica from DYCD. We have Kathleen Corradi, who is our rodent mitigation person. She's really known as our rat czar. You know, I love her and she hates rats and so do we. We also have someone who's very important to making this possible, and that is Valerie Vazquez from the Community [Affairs] Unit. She really pulls them together. And her partner at the Department for the Aging side is Charlie Anderson from our Intergovernmental Affairs, so thank you Valerie and Charlie.

We also have Kieran Mahoney who is from the Department of Finance. Both Keirnan and Christian will talk to you, and they have a table outside, around SCRIE and DRIE so that you can make sure that you apply for SCRIE and DRIE. The sooner you apply, the more financial advantage you get. If you wait too long, you get an advantage, but it's not quite as impactful as if you do it early.

We're also very pleased to have here with us Ukah Busgith, who is with NYCHA, the New York City Housing Authority. Welcome, Ukah.

We have Laura Rog, who is going to talk to you about — I love Laura — our volunteer person, she makes sure that every New Yorker who wants to give service to the City of New York has an opportunity to do that. So, Laura will talk to you a little bit about a special initiative that the mayor has endorsed. Not only did he endorse it, he was pretty adamant that we would do it.

And we have Ryan Murray, who is the executive commissioner at the Department for the Aging. Thank you, Ryan.

I'm going to introduce Commanding Officer Tompkins from the 40 Precinct to give you a little bit of information on the initiatives that have been started by the mayor around older adults at precincts.

Deputy Inspector Joseph Tompkins, Commanding Officer, 40 Precinct, Police Department: Hello, everyone. My name is Joe Tompkins. I'm the commanding officer of the 40th Precinct, your lovely neighbor right here on the corner.

Since I'm sure I'm going to hear plenty of complaints from you guys today, I just do have one on Friday and Saturday nights: you guys do get a little loud as it gets a little later into the evening. I don't want to have to call 311, if you can just try to keep the volume down. We don't want to have any more problems.

But seriously, it's great to be here. I appreciate the invite. Thank you, obviously, the mayor for being here. So, at the 40 Precinct, we started something a few months ago that was rolled out by the Commissioner Caban, and it's what we call Senior Crime Victim Liaisons.

So basically, obviously, as an older adult, if you're the victim of a crime — which is rare, but it does happen — you might need help canceling credit cards, going to the bank to get a new card. You know, if you have a car that's stolen, you have to reach out to insurance.

There's just so many things that happen after the crime, and what our liaison officers do is, when you're the victim of a crime, they will reach out to you. If you have a phone number, they reach out by phone. If they can't get a hold of you by phone, they'll come to your place of residence, and they'll assist you in any way possible.

Because it's bad enough being the victim of a crime, the least that the police department could do is try to make things a little bit better after you've already been victimized. But I'm very happy to be here. Thank you so much, and I look forward to any questions. Thanks.

Commissioner Cortés-Vázquez: Thank you. I'm going to have Kathleen, Kathleen, do you want to make a presentation on what we're doing in the City of New York for rodent mitigation? Thank you.

Kathleen Corradi, Citywide Director of Rodent Mitigation: Thank you. Thank you, mayor, for having me here. Thank you, everyone.

So, I am Kathy Corradi, I'm the citywide director of rodent mitigation for the City of New York, affectionately known as the rats czar. And what we are doing as a city is taking a wholesale system approach to reducing rat populations, and that is focused on three main tenets: taking away their access to food, and we have sweeping changes to how our city manages waste from the Department of Sanitation. So, in the very near future we will no longer see black bags on our curbs, which is rats' main food source.

The second thing we're doing is working better together, so, better collaboration, more efficiency, making sure we're breaking down silos and working better as a government to serve New Yorkers and our public spaces.

The third piece is connecting with all of you. So, this work cannot be done alone. We need partnership with New Yorkers. We need you informed, we need you engaged and we need you taking action to combat rats with us.

So, I look forward to being here today, hearing any questions, concerns you have about the South Bronx and rats and other pests here, and then partnering going forward to make sure we can make New York City the best city it can be.

Commissioner Cortés-Vázquez: Thank you. Ukah, do you want to give a little bit on the updates on NYCHA, what's happening in this community?

Ukah Busgith, Executive Vice President, Resident Services, Partnerships, and Initiatives, NYCHA: Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Uka Busgith. I'm the executive director for Resident Services, Partnerships and Initiatives at NYCHA. Sorry for the long name.

Our team focuses on connecting residents to services, whether it's social services, working with the senior cabinet for older adults with the commissioner. And so our team sits there.

We also work with the Police Department very closely. We have Office of Safety and Security, if there are issues brought to our attention, we work with NYPD to address those immediately, whether it's doing verticals on the ground or connecting residents to services or removing someone who's loitering in the building and working with HRA.

So, all the folks here are our partners to address concerns that are brought to us by residents, whether it's, you know, the mayor has funded roofs replacement and also elevators. And I know that's issues that our residents have here and they've brought to our attention, safety and security and quality of life, we hear that all the time.

So, our team really focused on connecting residents to the services that the city offers, whether it's working with any cabinet members here and commissioners. So, thank you.

Commissioner Cortés-Vázquez: Yes, the mayor will tell you a little bit about the cabinet that he designed and how the major breakthroughs we've had because of that cabinet.

I'm also going to ask Laura, will you come up in our city volunteer chief and talk a little bit about what we're doing?

Laura Rog, Chief Service Officer, NYC Service: Of course, yes. Thank you so much, commissioner and mayor, for having me here today. So, once again, I'm Laura Rog, and I'm very proudly the chief service officer for the city, which means I oversee the Office of Service and Volunteerism.

And our goal is really to build a culture of service across the city where everyone takes responsibility for each other and for the city. So, there are so many ways to do this. So many times, I've now been, my background as youth service for almost 25 years, and when we look at the needs with youth, the number one factor that can be of influence in a youth's life is to have a caring adult. It doesn't necessarily have to be a parent or a teacher, just somebody who cares about them, who knows their name, asks about them.

And in that spirit, we had a really wonderful… Every year we give out awards, our Youth Impact Awardee last year created a pen pal program between her high school and a senior center in Queens.

And through the mayor's support, we're expanding that and aging has really taken the baton from NYC service and we're all in the process together of expanding this in senior centers all across the city. So, there will be really amazing ways to engage with youth, to be able to be a mentor to youth.

And also, if you have interest before we start those, you can always go to our website at nyc.gov /service, and that's where you can find volunteer opportunities here in your own neighborhood. We have hundreds of opportunities available in any given week on different issues, whether you want to work with youth, whether you want to work in the communities. We're building out opportunities with Kathy and her team.

So, there really are just anything that you want to do in your community. We're here to help support those. We can support you with resources, with connections, help you get volunteers, and then, also just find places to serve yourselves. So, thank you again.

Commissioner Cortés-Vázquez: [Speaks in Spanish.] So, thank you, Laura.

And then the other officials will be talking when you raise a question that's related to their issues, but then we have a special guest that the mayor is going to introduce.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thank you. Give it up for our commissioner, she's so dedicated and committed.

You know, we can be up in the BX, we were together earlier today at Lincoln Hospital talking about our lifestyle medicine initiative. And it's just really, really proud to just take a moment and introduce our amazing Bronx borough president and all that she's doing here. The first woman borough president, you know, first woman borough president in the borough of the Bronx, Borough President Gibson.

Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson: Thank you. Thank you. Hello, everyone!

All right. Bienvenidos a todos. Good afternoon, everyone. It's so good to be back here at Borinquen Court Mitchel. Make some noise! Yes!

First, let me thank East Side House for the incredible work that they do every day here at Borinquen Court Mitchel, for the amazing services and programs. The last time I was here, it was with our commissioner, Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez, as we were giving out tablets, remember?

And that's just an initiative that this administration continues to support when we talk about connecting our older adults to services.

So, today's town hall here at Borinquen Court is really an opportunity for all of you to ask questions to engage with our administration. We have an amazing leader in Alcalde Eric Adams, yes, our mayor.

And all of the great work that he does each and every day. We were together earlier talking about healthy lifestyles and healthy living because so many of us live every day with diabetes, with heart disease, with obesity, with high blood pressure.

But guess what? They're all preventable diseases. And we want to make sure that in all of these spaces, we are giving all of you services and programs and resources for you, for your families, for your loved ones. That's what today's town hall is all about.

So, I want to say thank you to the Department for the Aging. We have an amazing commissioner that loves the Bronx, that is a friend to our borough, that continues to do amazing work to all of our commissioners who are here, our commanding officer, Inspector Joe Tompkins at the 40 Precinct.

We are here to make your life better, to improve your quality of life for you and your family. Thank you to everyone for participating today. Shout out to Community Affairs. We see you. Can we give them a round of applause?

And so whether we are talking about public safety, whether we're talking about lighting, we're talking about healthy food, we're talking about security measures, all of this is for you.

So, take advantage of today. Continue to work with East Side House and all of the partners that do this work every day. Whether you live in Borinquen Court, you live in Mitchel, you live in any other part of our borough, we are here to serve all of you. So, we look forward to today's town hall. Gracias a todos. Que Dios te bendiga. Thank you all for coming, and we look forward to today's conversation.

Mayor Adams: Thank you so much, borough president, for just being here. And thank all of you. And I hope the tablet distribution is something that you find useful and helpful.

And you know, we want to just really have a lively conversation. Who's the senior representative, captain? Who's the liaison for the seniors in the precinct?

Deputy Inspector Tompkins: Would be the crime prevention officer.

Mayor Adams: Are they here?

Tompkins: Yes, all the blue shirts.

Mayor Adams:Okay, stand up. Stand up, folks. Let them see you. Okay. Because navigating government… Thank you. Thank you so much. Navigating government is extremely challenging. And you know, to the law enforcement people who are here, I know you get a lot of negative feedback on Twitter or social media, but I have yet to go to one town hall where you don't receive the loudest applause. You get the loudest applause no matter where I go.

And so you can't allow that noise that the people in this room don't want to see their police officers. That is a lie. People love their police officers. They respect you. They want you on their block. They want you coming down the block. They want you saying hello. They want you to interact.

Don't allow those people who live in Wisconsin and tweet about NYPD to let you believe that's what everyday New Yorkers want. New Yorkers want good policing and safe policing, so thank you for taking on a profession. It's a noble profession, and we appreciate what you do.

And I want to say to all of you, just go back. Go back two years ago, January 1st, 2022, when I was sworn in to be the mayor. What was happening in the city? Covid was everywhere. Everyone was wearing a mask.

Crime was at a 40 percent increase. No jobs were coming to the city. People who are the independent observers of how well we're doing financially gave us a low rating, it's called a bond rating. Tourism was not here. You could walk down Times Square, you won't see anyone on the streets.

We were just in a different place, and it was impacting us not only physically because of Covid, because all of us lost someone to Covid. All of us. But we also were in a place that people thought it was going to take us five years to turn around.

Now, two years and three months later, what is it, what are the numbers saying? We have more private and public sector jobs in the history of the city: 300,000 under my administration, 62 million tourists are back here spending money.

The independent financial observers that talk about the stability of the city have raised our rating because how we have managed the crises that we are facing. Your grandbabies are outpacing the state in reading and math. We are doing better than anywhere else in the state.

We have put money back in the pockets of everyday New Yorkers by decreasing the cost of childcare. Used to be $55 a week for low income, we're down now to less than $5 a week. We helped our foster care children the way they should be helped.

Homicides are down in double digits. Shootings are down in double digits. Five of the seven major crime categories are down as well. 4.1 million people are back on our subway system.

We're doing well, New Yorkers. Here's what you are feeling. Because we wake up and the first thing we see is the worst thing that happens in our day, we begin to define the situation. based on the worst thing that happens in our day. Do you know we have 4.1 million people that ride our subway system? Think about that number. Out of that 4.1 million, we have six felonies a day, out of 4.1 million.

And so but if you read about that roasting that happened on the subway system every day out of the 4.1 million riders that nothing happened to you, begin to believe that your subway system is unsafe. You begin to believe that our city is not recovering and our city is out of order. It is not out of order.

You know what we need to do at one of our town hall, the next town hall we need to flash on the screen here what other cities are going through. You need to look at the other cities and see the comparison to what we are doing. And in spite of navigating out of Covid, bringing our economy back, making our city safe, what happened? We get 180,000 migrant and asylum seekers. That's 1.5 the size of Albany dropped in our city.

And people see me all the time, they say, mayor, what are you doing to us? They say, why don't you stop the buses from coming in? I can't, it's against federal law for me to do that. Well, why don't you allow them to work? I can't, it's against federal law to allow me to allow them to work. Well, why don't you stop just letting people have three meals a day and we pay up the taxes? I can't, it's against the law for me to do that. Why don't you deport those who commit serious crimes in our city repeatedly? I can't, it's against the law to do that.

So, I was given a problem that I have to fix where the laws in Washington, in the state and in the City Council handcuffs me from fixing it the way I want to. And when I go to these asylum locations to the shelters and I walk through, you know what they ask of me? They say, we don't want your free meals. We don't want you to pay for our bedding. We don't want you to play for our cleaning. We don't want your healthcare.

All we want to do is work. Let us work, and we won't ask for anything. We would do what all of us have done, because all of us came from somewhere. And the reason we're able to provide for ourselves is because we were able to work. Federal government needs to allow them to work. That's all they want to do.

You know the interesting part? We need workers. We need lifeguards. We need food service, we need nurses. You show me the profession, and I will show you the people that we need to fill the jobs in those professions. We have 14,000 open jobs just in city government, 14,000, and we're trying to fill those jobs.

So, the goal is to allow people to work and allow people to contribute to our society and not be left outside our society. Nothing is more dehumanizing than having to sit around in a shelter somewhere with thousands of people all day doing nothing at all waiting for someone to give you something.

That is dehumanizing. It's unfair, it's unfair to you as taxpayers because it costs us $4 billion, and it's unfair to people who came here to contribute to our society and they can't.

So, our goal is to make the city safer, cleaner, more affordable and more livable. That is the goal that I have. That's the promise I made when I decided to become the mayor of the City of New York.

We have a lot of challenges, but there's not one day I don't wake up thanking God that I'm the mayor at this time and this moment. This is an Esther, I think it's 4:14 moment. God made me for such a time like this.

And so before we open questions, I want to give you this. Mom told me about this, you know, before she transitioned during the campaign, she says that during an emergency, people come, ambulance, the police or whatever, they come and they have to search for your basic information.

This is a magnetic information form you can put on your refrig and you can just set it up, fill it out. So, if someone comes, they can have your basic information, your name, your emergency contact number. If you're allergic to any medicine, any allergies, who's your medical person.

It's there. If you're going through a medical crisis, it's far easier for someone to look at it and just get the questions and not have to question you while you're going through a medical crisis.

So, you have one for yourself, you can fill it out and you can have another one if you need for your boo, you know, so that they can fill it out as well. But it's about having the information readily available and just put it wherever you want so it's contacted, okay?

So, let's open up for some questions. Again, thank you so much for allowing me to come up and interact with you, and we're going to open up a few questions.

Translator: Okay. Bienvenidos a todo. Gracias. I'm going to say in Spanish because we have a lot of people that speak Spanish.

Mayor Adams: Yes. Okay, talk into the mic. There you are. There you are.

Translator: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Commissioner Cortés-Vázquez: The question is, this question is directed to NYCHA, and it's about pets and managing pet feces. All right? The one thing that she's noticed is as more pets are allowed in NYCHA that she notices that there's more and more pet waste on the sidewalk and really disrupting people.

And so she feels that what can we do to mitigate that, because people are really concerned about the way the community looks.

Mayor Adams: So, we're going to turn it over to NYCHA, but what I do want to, and you could translate, I know people have translators on their ears, right?

Okay. So, we're going to talk about that specific question, but I do want to share with you, during Covid, I went into NYCHA to hand out face masks during the beginning of Covid, and I was knocking on individual doors, we were going up and down the stairs, and you know, people were really surprised to see that the borough president was doing this.

But as I spoke to people, I asked them, how are your children doing? Because we were doing remote learning and you needed to have high speed broadband and wifi. And many of the families said our children can't sign on. They can't go on, they can't make access to the computers.

And I promised them, I said, we're going to give you high‑speed broadband when I get elected to become mayor. We allocated the money to put high‑speed broadband to every NYCHA resident with the favorite four letter New York City word, free. Everybody got free.

The second that I'm working on right now that I observe, which is really frustrating me and I'm angry about, is that as I drive at the middle of the night, I notice in every NYCHA establishment, there's mounds of garbage bags. And it's, you pay your rent.

There's no reason we cannot, as our rat czar has attempted to do and Department of Sanitation, we need nice bins. There should be no garbage bag, no open trash anywhere in NYCHA. It should be inside a bin. It should be well kept and well cleaned, because that's part of your rodent problem, the dog waste and the trash that's all over NYCHA.

That's unacceptable, and we're going to change that. I already spoke to the commissioner about it. We're going to going to make sure your grounds are presentable and respectable as they deserve to do. So, let's go over and talk about this dog mess.

Commissioner Cortés-Vázquez: Just translate a little bit, that's important.

Mayor Adams:  Okay.

Commissioner Cortés-Vázquez: [Speaks in Spanish.] Now I turn it over.

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Busgith: Thank you. And we acknowledge that's a problem that exists not only in Mitchel Houses, but across the city and we're looking to see how we can enforce it. It takes a lot of education, and also sometimes we make available those little bags to encourage residents to pick up after their pets.

But it's a hard thing to change habits, and so we will continue to push forward. I think with support from the mayor and just really launching an educational campaign and giving residents those bags to help them pick up after their pets.

And we also find that residents outside of the development bring their pets on to our grounds, and that's another issue, and so we try to encourage more signs, posting signs in the development to encourage folks to pick up after their pets.

Mayor Adams: And we will do — you're going to translate — we're going to do more enforcement. If there's a particular location where it's habitual, we'll get the PSA, the police that's assigned to NYCHA, and come out and do more enforcement, because it's just an unhealthy situation to be in.

Commissioner Cortés-Vázquez: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Mayor Adams: Yes. Thank you.

Question: I want to talk to you about the elevator [inaudible]. I have [inaudible] can't even come to the… Brand new elevators in some of the buildings. Most seniors cannot get out. I can't get out. I got two knee replacements, I'm 78 years old. I just had a stent put in the right side of my kidney. They would tell you I haven't been here two months because the elevator is now broke.

All the time, this do not make sense. We have a senior building. They catch more hell than we do. You hear what I say? And it's not fair because we all paid our dues. Okay? It's like anything else. If we get $10 in social security, our rent going up $40. So, I'm used to that. I know. I came from this community when it was the Irish community. I was raised up in this community.

But as far as service for seniors, we don't have no service. I cannot say that there when they come to the Police Department and the Fire Department. The Fire Department come. If my seniors in the lobby, they can't get up, they help them up.

I have seen the Fire Department take a young lady to the 20th floor. Somebody took her baby stroller, somebody took the baby bag, and she took her baby. I have been helped upstairs by the Fire Department. But then you also got seniors that cannot move their legs and work, so that mean they sitting there another two or three hours. It's not fair. It's not fair.

Mayor Adams: Which building is this? Is there a specific...

Question: Oh, you kidding me? I'm in 205. I'm in Building 4.

Mayor Adams: So… 

Question: But I can start with one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10.

Mayor Adams: So, why don't we give us that location, and I'm going to come over and I want to see exactly. This is NYCHA you're talking about?

Question: NYCHA.

Mayor Adams: Okay. So, let's come take a look at it. What we, this is what I have observed in the city and we see it often. Sometimes, you know, government has failed us, and sometimes we throw up our hands and think government can't operate. And that is just not true, that's not true. It's particularly when you have a mayor that knows that it can operate.

And we're going to go over, we're going to look at your location, we're going to get the history, oh no DJ, let me connect with her for a minute. We're going to get the history of the elevators and see who had to contract to install it, if you're saying it's new elevators.

We need to do an analysis, because all we know someone has been duping us and playing games with us. So, let us go in and take a look at it.

But something else that I didn't miss what you said. You said that the police department and the FDNY responded, because if we operate as a team, even if one part of the team fails, the other team members must step up and be there.

And that's what you see this Police Department. It's not only chasing bad guys, it's helping good guys and good ladies. And so in the loss of that story about the failure of the elevator, we had a safety net called NYPD, FDNY. And we're going to go look at the elevator problem because you should not need them to take you upstairs, but if you do need them, they should be there to give you the help that you need. So again, thank you, FDNY, NYPD.

Busgith: Yes, sure. I could add something. So, I am happy to report, and I know that there are five buildings where we replaced one elevator, by the end of a couple of years. months, we replaced another five. By the end of the year, the entire development will have new elevators. So, I understand that right now it's an emergency, but they are being replaced and funded by the city and other government entities.

In addition to that, we do have a stair climber program, and I'm sorry that this information wasn't available to you. But if you need to go up and down when the elevators are being rehabbed, we can also have a stair climber to take you up and down, and you can make an appointment with the Property Management Office.

So, Rodney Gwyn from my team is here. We'll take your information and ensure that you have that connection so any time that you're stranded — for lack of a better word — you can call Property Management and we can make an appointment for you to go up and down the stairs, Okay?

Mayor Adams: Okay? Hear that? New elevators are coming.

She said that she's replacing five more. But I'm going to take a look at the elevators. I'm going to take a look at the elevators, okay?

Audience Member:  [Inaudible] they have one new [inaudible] work.

Mayor Adams: Okay. One? So, we're going to come by and take a look at it, okay? All right, don't give up. Don't give up. That's the goal, never give up. Okay, where are we going?

Get the, get the information. You got her information, DJ? Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am.

Question: Hi, Eric, how are you?

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: I'm okay. My name is [Tishana Howl], and my mom lives in a building in 2550. And I'm there staying with her all the time. And there's extremely like bad activity going on near the window, and especially like two or three o'clock in the morning she can barely sleep. There's always some trafficking going on and people enter into the building that don't live into the building.

So, I know the precinct is a couple, like maybe one block from here. And maybe need some patrolling to maybe be at the corner because there's always something going on out there. It goes from maybe some time three o'clock in the morning up until about four or five.

I think there's a Muslim that's there with Muslims with their praying, and there's always some activity going on. The guys are on the sidewalk where they're praying at a certain time. I mean, that's people's faith so you can't stop that.

But they are on the sidewalk. Inside the sanctuary is okay, but they are on the sidewalk. And I mean, there's all type of things that's going on that maybe needs to be addressed. Okay, so.

Mayor Adams: Right. Right. Allah doesn't call you to prayer at 2 a.m. in the morning, you pray throughout the day, you know So, we're going to go. There's a mosque there?

Question: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: Okay, okay. Why don't we talk privately on that? Okay? Okay. We're going to take a look at it. The mosques are normally very receptive when we go over there. We'll speak with the imam and find out exactly what is happening over there, okay? Thank you for that, but it's... Inspector?

Deputy Inspector Tompkins: We are very familiar with the mosque that you're talking about, and obviously, I know the location. We do have a very good relationship with the iman and he's excellent. So, that's something we could solve simply.

And as far as the other stuff, I'm aware, you know, you're talking about the narcotics and stuff over on 3rd Avenue, we'll request narcotics maybe do a little later ones to suppress that, and also I'll let the housing commanding officer know about your issues over there.

Mayor Adams: Okay, so mom can sleep. Mom can sleep. How are you? What are you doing? You're no senior.

Officer Wendy Guerrero, Police Department: These ladies [inaudible]. Good afternoon, everybody, I'm Officer Guerrero from the 41 Precinct Crime Prevention Liaison. My beautiful ladies here, their concern is the security of the building. They mentioned that an incident that happened not long ago, one of the residents was sitting outside and his property was removed.

[Speaks in Spanish.]

Okay, so something happened in the building as well and the police took too long to get to this location, 285 East 138th Street. So, they actually want more cops to respond to the building and they kind of worry about the 40th Precinct being moved to another location.

Mayor Adams:  The precinct itself? Are we moving the precinct? Okay. You're getting a new precinct. Nobody complains about a new precinct.

Deputy Inspector Tompkins: So, I think what the concern is is that because this precinct has been here so long and now we're going to move to 149th and St. Ann's, we're not going to have the presence that we do here. I think that's what the concern is.

And as far as the response time, obviously I'm not familiar with the specific incident that you're speaking of, but our crimes and our response is prioritized based on what it was, I'm not sure what the call came over. You're speaking about a very specific thing, if maybe you can get some information and let me know that maybe I could look into it.

But I do assure you, I know everyone wants more police and wants more police presence. The 40 Precinct is the third largest precinct in the entire city as far as personnel goes, and we also have PSA 7 working in this area, which is about another 180 cops.

So, we get more than our fair share of officers thanks to the police commissioner and the mayor, of course. The 40 Precinct, like I said, is the third largest in the city.

Mayor Adams:  And tell me something, how many of you have grandchildren? Tell them to take the police test. We have a shortage. Your daughter's taking it? We have a shortage. We need more police officers. We have a shortage, not enough are coming in.

It's a great career, it's a great job. Encourage them to take the police exam. You see these officers that are here, they all come from the community, and so it's important to encourage our grandchildren. If we want policing to be what we want it to be, let it be one of our family members. So take the test, encourage them to take the test.

Question: Hello, my name is [Juan Barrios].

Mayor Adams: How you doing? Is that New York Mets?

Question: No, it's not, that's the Yankees. How you doin', man?

Mayor Adams: Good, brother.

Question: Okay. The question is that my concern is more police officers on the buses and on the streets that we need. And I haven't seen them, especially on buses.

Mayor Adams: Yes. And that's a great question. It's a real challenge placing police officers on buses. You have police officers that are assigned to transit that follow bus routes. You have cameras on the buses. But to place the manpower would take, to place the police officer on every bus is just we don't have the manpower to do it.

But what we have been doing is utilizing the camera systems, making sure that the bus routes, that we have officers patrolling the bus routes that they're on to have a real visible presence. But to place an officer physically on every bus, we just don't have the manpower to do it.

Now our crimes on buses are extremely low, almost non‑existence. They're almost non‑existent. We have a real safe bus system. But if you're the victim of one crime, you don't want to know about the stats of the crime. But I want to let you know, when we do an analysis of crimes on buses, they're almost non‑existent.

You know, our buses are relatively safe. Like I said, we have six felonies in our subway system, but we're constantly on a visible presence of law enforcement on our buses, on our trains and on our street corners. But I hear you loud and clear.

What you got going on, man?

Know what I'm sayin'?

Question: Greetings, Mayor Adams. My name is [Herman Francis.] I'm a former school board member in District 7. One year as vice president for [Bloomberg] [inaudible] mayoral control. Also sat on Community Board 1 for about 12 years, six years as head of Municipal Services Committee.

My thing is about this jail that's being put up there at 141st Street and Southern Boulevard, because jail to me is a waste of money. We're not going to jail our way out here because Sing Sing opened up in 1827, is still open. And because of a failure of the education system it keeps on being refilled, refilled. And also, when are we going to put the housing police station back in the housing developments?

Mayor Adams: First let's deal with the jail. I'm with you. We have to build four more jails, started out as $8 billion, I think it's now up to about $15 billion. The law was passed by the City Council to close Rikers Island by a certain date and build four more jails throughout the city.

Now, the population in Rikers Island right now is more than a population of the four new jails we're going to build. So, I don't know what the plan is. I think we need an alternative plan. 50 percent of those who are in Rikers Island are dealing with mental health issues.

Instead of building more jails we need to build a state of the art quality mental health place to give people the wraparound care that they need. That's what we should be focusing on. You know?

Question: We're going to be going through right now, when Nelson Rockefeller was governor, what we're going through right now, due to plowing the course and for every action is the reaction. When Nelson Rockefeller was governor, he closed down every state mental institution in New York State and why we're going through this mess right now.

Also, as far as the jail, you can build on top the courthouses, because I'm reading the newspaper right now on how we're building apartments, New York City is building apartments on top of public libraries. You can put apartments on top of libraries, you definitely can put jails on top of the courthouses and stop all this bussing back and forth.

Because I'm talking about any… I'm going to break it to you like this. If it costs $100 a day to put a person on a jail mattress, that's $36,500 a year of our taxpaying money. And now the federal government pays local jails $175, $250 a night to keep illegal immigrants inside their jails. We're not going to jail our way out this mess. But there is a solution, and I'll tell you what the solution is after the meeting.

Mayor Adams: Okay. Thank you. And clearly... Clearly you did very well in school in math. Because I would not have gotten you those numbers. You know, I wish I would have sat next to you in school, I probably got a better grade, you know?

So, and we're with you. The name of the game, we can't incarcerate our way out of this, right? So, at Rikers Island, 30 to 40 percent of the inmates are dyslexic. That's why we're doing dyslexia screening, so our babies don't believe they have to have a pathway to incarceration.

And when you look at what David Banks is doing, the chancellor, we know if you don't educate, you're going to incarcerate. So, we want to grab our babies before they get on that pathway. And so the goal is not to just build more jails, we need to be building housing, and we need to use the taxpayers' dollars wisely.

So, I'm with you 100 percent. I don't think the way the plan is currently laid out is right, but I've got to follow the law. The law was passed under the previous administration to build four more jails, close down Rikers, and this whole plan.

I think we need to relook at the plan, and we need to get it right, because if we're going to spend $13, $14, $15 billion, we need to make sure we get the product that taxpayers are paying for. Thank you.

Question: Good afternoon, people. My name is Allan.

Mayor Adams: Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

Question: My concern is I have a CityFEPS voucher and I have in my hand over 300 brokers that I have been calling for apartments, I have put in applications. They're telling me that they're not receiving, they're not taking any vouchers, CityFHEPS vouchers at all.

And I had this voucher almost going on a year and a half, and I am homeless, I am in the streets, I am in places where I go to shower and survive. And the only thing I am looking for is a decent apartment to live in instead of being out here with all of the crime and different things that are going on.

Commissioner Annabel Palma, Commission on Human Rights: It's illegal for any broker or landlord to tell you that they're not taking a city voucher that's going to help you pay your rent. I have two team members in the back. Give them your information now and I will have my LEB team follow up with the list that you have in your hand.

Mayor Adams: Okay. So, as the commissioner, this is the commissioner of Human Rights, that's illegal. That's why I wanted her to tell you. It's illegal for someone to state that they're not going to take your FHEPS voucher, okay? And so we're going to look into it and we'll do some tests because we want to find those who are doing that.

And I am hoping that our lawmakers will pass a law because you're licensed by the state to be a broker and a real estate agent. We should, you do it one time, you get a fine. If you deny you one time, you get a fine. You deny you twice, we suspend your license for 10 years. We've got to send the right message that housing has a right for everybody and not allow people to get away with turning you down for your FHEPS vouchers.

But in response to that also, we have an inventory issue. We have a 1 percent vacancy rate, 1.4 percent vacancy rate in the city. Got to build more housing. Right now there's a conversation up in Albany that we're saying, give us the right to build more housing. We have to build more for low‑income, middle income, senior housing, returning citizen housing.

We have to build more. We don't have enough. You should not be vying… We have 10,000 FHEPS vouchers out there that people can't find housing. We got to build more housing. Okay.

But the commissioner is standing, I'm sitting right back by you.

Question: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Commissioner Cortés-Vázquez: Wonderful. I'll translate that. This is a two‑part question, all right? The first part of the question is that what, you know, like previous administrations had a law enforcement policy that was maybe not very community‑centered. And so what training and what commitment do you have to make training, let me just do the second part of it, the community training to mitigate that.

The other part of the question was, as an older adult, very concerned about the crime that they're experiencing or the fear of crime that they're experiencing and more community presence in those areas that they reside or more where they're walking and living every day.

Mayor Adams: And that is an interesting dynamic. We're translating, right? That's an interesting dynamic, because what you mentioned is what I talk about all the time. We want quality police that is respectable, but we also want our police to deal with criminal elements in our community.

People tend to believe you could only have one or the other. We don't believe that. Commissioner Caban, who is the first Spanish‑speaking commissioner in the history of our city, he understands how to give that balance. How we train our police officers, even when you see those who are here from community affairs, they understand because they're from your community. These are your children. These are your children, are now coming back providing safety but providing respect.

Some of these young officers grew up in an era where not only there was high crime but they were also being disrespected. And so now they come with a different energy: we could have both the respect that you're talking about, but we can also deal with the public safety aspect of it.

And we want more visible presence. We want our officers interacting. We want people to see their police officers, talk to their police officers and really build that synergy because we need each other, the good people of the city.

And Deputy Commissioner Mark Stewart of Community Affairs, he has done some amazing things to show a better interaction. He has baby showers for young girls who can't afford to buy the basic supplies such as diapers and play pens, et cetera. He has created an environment where if you sell stuff, you go to the precinct and there's a camera there that you can sell it in a safe environment. He has just graduated a group of young people from an aviation program teaching them how to fly.

So, this is not a police department that just runs after bad guys. This is a police department that believes we need to embrace and build a better relationship with good guys and good ladies. And that's what we're doing under this administration, but thank you so much for that question. Question.

Question: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Commissioner Cortés-Vázquez:  Mopeds.

Mayor Adams: Mopeds, oh.

Commissioner Cortés-Vázquez: Laws for bicycle and pedestrian safety. It was about bicycles, pedestrian safety around bicycles and about our...

Mayor Adams: When they hear that, everybody gets excited. You know that? You know that? Go ahead, Inspector.

Deputy Inspector Tompkins: The moped and the bicycle issue is one of our top priorities coming from the top of the department. If you go by our precinct, you'll see 20 or 30 mopeds and motorcycles that we confiscate. We've taken 87 just mopeds, just the electric mopeds that we're talking about.

We know everyone's riding around on them. They're robbing people, they're grabbing stuff. We're well aware of the situation. We do the best we can. We have weekly details that just, we have eight cops that just go out targeting people that are doing bad things on those mopeds and the scooters and the motorcycles.

It is something we're aware of. It's something that we take very seriously, and your concerns are definitely going to be addressed.

Mayor Adams: Inspector, does she have a translator? Okay. This is a big issue for us, every town hall we go to there is a moped question. And we have removed thousands off the streets. I forgot the exact total, but it's a lot. Mopeds, illegal cars, paper plates, ghost plates, illegal motorcycles, it became rampant after Covid‑19, and we have really clamped down, as the inspector stated.

We're with you. We have to regain control of our streets from these illegal motorized apparatus. So, we're with you, 100 percent. Where's these t‑shirts? Do I get one of those t‑shirts?

Question: Good afternoon, Mayor Adams. Thank you for coming to us.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.

Question: We are concerned because we are being charged rent from NYCHA. So, we're asking if you can please implement a better system for rent payments for NYCHA, we are now being told to send our payments to Pennsylvania, Florida and other locations when their offices are here in New York. So, the consequences are that they're charging us rent and they're taking us to court; and if you don't have your receipts, our seniors are having to pay again.

Mayor Adams: Talk to me about that. Talk to me about that.

Busgith: Is that for many residents or is it your individual case? Maybe we can talk. I'm sorry.

Question: Our table had about three or four people here with the same situation.

Busgith: Okay. So, I will get your information after this, but of course you should not be paying your rent twice, three times and whatever trusted source NYCHA has for you to pay that rent, it should be calculated and credited to your account. So, I will definitely come around and give you my card, and we can follow up.

But then we'll flag for the property manager at Mitchel Houses that this is prevalent across this development and have them take another look at it.

Mayor Adams: Okay, but tell me about the pay, we don't pay in NYCHA on it?

Busgith: No, we have eliminated that, when they used to go into the management office and pay rent for a long time.

Mayor Adams: So, how is it paid?

Busgith: They pay to a bank. I think we recently changed the Chase, so it should be a little… 

Mayor Adams: So, what you said, you said you have to, what do you have to do?

Busgith: It's a lock box.

Question: It's different, my company is Krause, and so...

Busgith: Oh, it's privately managed.

Question: Yes. It's different, we have NYCHA, we have HUD, we have multiple.

Mayor Adams: Right, right. So, how do you pay, how do you pay your...

Question: My brother is the one that is having the problem. He pays money orders, I pay it through a check.

Mayor Adams: So, what does he, he sends the money order somewhere? How is it done?

Question: He sends the money order, they told us to send it to Tampa. Their management company is in Long Island City.

Mayor Adams: You mail it in, or… 

Question: Yeah.

Busgith: You can't pay it online?

Mayor Adams: Yeah, I was about to say that. What's the suggestion?

Question: They want to know if maybe there's a better system that they don't know of.

Busgith: So, it seems like that's a privately… Krause is a private management company, so it's not coming to NYCHA's, it's going... Right?

[Crosstalk.]

Mayor Adams: Okay, so let look at, let us look at these private, it has to be easy and it has to be... With all this day of technology, we have to find an easy way that it's not, you know, challenging for you. Let's look at this. This is the first time I've ever heard this.

Busgith: Yes. If you're paying directly to NYCHA, it's through a bank and you can pay electronically, but I think it's the private management. Yes. Okay.

Mayor Adams: Okay. Okay. Yes. She's going to grab your information. I want to hear about this. Let's dig into this, Karen. Okay? Let's find out exactly what this problem out because they're having it in other private locations. So, let us look into it. Okay. Where am I? How are you?

Question: Hi, there. Good afternoon, Mayor.

Question: Afternoon.

Audience Member: Thank you for taking the time and your officials and taking the time and listening to our issues. Our issues were health hazard and quality of life. We have two.

One is, and we know that you've lots of efforts and investments. St. Mary's Park is beautiful and then warm weather is coming. However, this is in the whole neighborhood, but specifically in St. Mary's, there's lots of used needles, many of them in hidden, in not places where you would know that they're there and the kids will run and climb and can get hurt. We actually have pictures of that.

And also, the rat infestation in the neighborhood. Even though there's a lot of effort on the street level, there are basements, there are elevator banks, there are… 

My 90‑year‑old father's apartment is infested. The landlord says, you know, he does exterminators and things and still the rats come. He's killed like four with the mousetraps and they've gotten into the plastic. I mean, they work together. They work together.

So, you guys, I know you're putting a lot of effort in that, but the needles and the rats are still a quality of life and health hazard.

Mayor Adams: Yes. I was up in the Bronx I think it was Friday, where we went to a location where there was unbelievable number of needles that were on the ground. And actually while we were there, people were shooting up while we were there. And so we're going to look at that park. We're going to get Department of Parks out there. All right.

Deputy Inspector Tompkins: So, I am familiar with St. Mary's Park. Obviously, all the complaints and stuff, the needles are a big deal. Our community council meeting that we meet the first Tuesday of every month, there's actually a nonprofit organization that comes and they give out their phone number.

Unfortunately, I don't have that information here, but you could actually call them and they'll come out and they'll do a needle cleanup. Obviously there's receptacles in the park, the Parks Department does.

As it gets warmer, we have a big plan for St. Mary's Park. We're going to put a lot of cops in there. We're going to get drones up, we're going to do a lot of operations. We're well aware of the trouble at St. Mary's and we're going to take care of that.

Question: We're talking a lot...

Deputy Inspector Tompkins: No, trust me, I...

Question: And it's going to continue.

Deputy Inspector Tompkins: Unfortunately, that area you're talking about, there's 27 methadone clinics within five blocks of 149 and Third Avenue. So, there's people that have addictions, and this is where they're gravitating to because getting their treatment there. And unfortunately, they go into the park and they use. We are well aware of it. The Police Department will do whatever they can, you know, to...

Mayor Adams: So, we should connect with before, Katherine, you talk about the rats. We should connect with the organization. Inspector, who's going to connect with the organization? It's going to have to be constant cleanup and there's an organization nonprofit that's willing to do it, that would assist us in doing it. This way, we could address the issue. We don't want to... We don't want a child...

Question: There's restaurants and food above, so I can't even imagine what is going on below.

Mayor Adams: Yes, yes. Those are the rats you're talking about. Right, right. So, let's connect with giving that nonprofit, you know, one of your team members. Okay? But Katherine, can we talk about the rats in the basement?

Corradi: Yes. So, Department of Health is our inspection agency and they inspect any property that receives a 311 complaint about external pests.

We also have a rat mitigation zone here in the Bronx where they do proactive inspection, means every property gets inspected twice a year to really show where our rat burden is. What that does is the ownership of reducing, eliminating pests in their condition on a private property is responsibility of the landlord.

We work very closely with the Health Department and HPD in cases where those property owners, those landlords are not remedying issues, and we can even conduct joint inspections. So, I'll make sure you have my contact information. We could talk about the location your father's at, see what records we have on that building and see if we need to escalate.

For parks, the parks team works incredibly hard on rodent mitigation. St. Mary's Park, I'll make sure I take that back to that team, see what we can do in terms of treatment. As we mentioned though, it's that food source is what keeps the rat coming back.

So, if you're frequenting parks or your neighbors are frequenting parks, making sure they're getting litter into trash cans so it can get serviced, because if a wrapper, an errant wrapper goes into a shrub or on to a field, it makes that much more work for parks to clean up and that much easier for rats to access it.

Mayor Adams: Good stuff. Good stuff. So, we're going to look at both of those items. Okay.

Question: A picture they wanted to show you.

Mayor Adams: Yes, yes. Wow. That is a lot. Okay.

Question: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: Our question at this table is...

Question: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: We have a problem for insecurity at a level.

Question: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: On the buildings...

Question: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: And we're also worried...

Question: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: ...that the precinct is going to be moved.

Question: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: ...security how are we going to feel the community it is community...

Question: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: ...to resolve...

Question: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: ...the problem of the delinquency. That is a big problem.

Question: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: Are you going to leave us a very small precinct?

Question: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: The elderly [inaudible] risks than the young.

Question: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: In particular we are [inaudible].

Question: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: ...aside from the security...

Question: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: [Inaudible] by mail.

Question: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: From Amazon.

Question: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: UPS.

Question: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: Or any [other way].

Question: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: [inaudible] our apartments and then they disappear.

Question: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: The companies do not want to respond to this, reimburse.

Question: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: [Inaudible].

Question: [Speaks in Spanish.]

Translator: Are we going to go to you to help us with this?

Are we going to go to you to help us with this situation?

Mayor Adams: Muchas gracias.

You know, I'm going to come to you. Inspector, talk about the movement of the precinct because I heard that twice. How far is it moving? And you're not going, you're not going to lose the quality of your policing because of the movement. You're still going to have the quality of your policing, but you're getting a new precinct, a new precinct. You want to talk about that?

Deputy Inspector Tompkins: Yes, absolutely. So, the new precinct is going to be on 149 and St. Ann's. The building is there. It was supposed to be ready for us to move in years ago. We're well aware of the issues. The department has had several conversations because the precinct currently is a historical site. It's not like we can get rid of it.

There will be some sort of police presence still at the precinct, because we know there's going to be an adjustment period. People come in and walk into the precinct all the time. You know, Mitchel is right across the street, we come in, so we're well aware of the concerns and the issues when we finally do make the move.

So, I assure you that it won't be like if you want to walk across the street, there's not going to be a cop, you know, in the, in the old precinct, at least for a certain amount of time. We're well aware that there will be major concerns for the neighborhood and the community, and we'll make sure that there's cops always still at the precinct.

Mayor Adams: And this may be an opportunity to partner with the borough president of using that preexisting building and turning it into a community center, a senior center. So, we may be able to do something with that building. We should come up with a capital plan for that building.

You know, the packages. I still don't understand how people leave packages on your front door. You know, I'm not into that. Don't be leaving anything for me on my door, let me get my package.

Because, you know, I got Bébé's kids on my block, you know?

You leave that package there? Right. So, I don't understand Amazon and UPS. I don't know this new thing about, we left it there and you know, we're leaving your package here, it's gonna be there when you come back. Not on my block on Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn. You leave it there, by the time that truck turned the corner, that package is gone. And they need to they need to pay for it. Yes.

Question: [Inaudible].

Mayor Adams: Yes, and that's what they used to do. I don't understand this new stuff, you know? Somebody delivered a package, you had to sign for it. Right now, they leave it. They just drop it on their porch, you know? They take a picture, you know what? And they take a picture, and then they pick it up.

You know what I'm saying.

I know that, I know that hustle, you know?

How are you?

Question: [Speaks in Spanish.].

Commissioner Cortés-Vázquez: Mayor, I'll translate. Gracias. Gracias, gracias. Hers is sidewalks and the maintenance of sidewalk and holes and potholes that the pedestrian safety for older adults is really important. So, she wants to, how can we mitigate that and how can we remedy that?

Mayor Adams: Yes. What we're doing with Ydanis Rodriguez, our commissioner of DOT, first Spanish‑speaking Dominican to be the commissioner of DOT, again, he has been going out with older adults to map the streets, let them see the challenges of navigating their community.

If you have a particular area, we would like for his team to come out and see the area that you're talking about so we can make those improvements.

I'm sorry? By the precinct? Okay. So, why don't we team up and get DOT to come out, okay?

Mayor Adams: Oh, okay. Commissioner's here. I didn't see you.

Bronx Borough Commissioner Anthony Perez, Department of Transportation: Hi, everyone. I'm Anthony Perez. I'm the Bronx borough commissioner for NYC DOT, so just for the general rule, sidewalks and their maintenance are the responsibility of the property owner.

So, what we do is two things. One is we can issue a violation if it's a property that belongs to a store or a home residence. But in this case, since it's a city property, what we can do is we can work with the agency that owns the property, and we can work to fix sidewalk through DOT.

And then also, sometimes when the area is redeveloped, for example, when we discuss what's going to happen with the building,  we'll also make sure the sidewalk and the vicinity around the building those taken care of before it becomes transformed into a new purpose.

Mayor Adams: Okay. And...

Question: [Inaudible.]

Commissioner Cortés-Vázquez: No, no, she, they...

Question: [Inaudible] they had construction [in the trains] but they never did nothing about the sidewalk.

Mayor Adams: So, we're going to come over there and take care of that, okay?

Question: 138 and [inaudible].

Mayor Adams: We're on it. We're on it. That's our promise. Oh, before I forget, I want to just acknowledge PEU, please stand up PEU, Public Engagement Unit.

They are on the ground doing their thing, thank you, thank you so much. Okay, listen, I know you don't want to, but I got to bounce.

I got a whole lot going on. You know, and this is not one and done. We will be back up. We enjoy doing this, but I have a whole lot of city, a whole lot of city to run, right, borough president?

 

###